BACKGROUND

Story story… story! Once upon a time…time time!
Storytelling is an integral part of life. The ability to tell stories convincingly is one of the most powerful skills anyone can posses.

90% of what we consume in the world today are stories, whether in audio-visual content, pictures, news, advertisements and brand management. Even digital media is flooded with stories.

But how well do we tell our stories?

Over the past five years, the creative industry in Nigeria, particularly Nollywood, has improved on audio-visual technical qualities. Sound is better now, pictures have greatly improved but our storytelling abilities have somewhat diminished.

A long history of powerful storytelling, steeped in our contextual realities, has now been abandoned by new storytellers for the glories of telling tales that appeal to a global audience. The challenge with this move is that stories are first local before they are global. Great stories
are told within specific contexts but they travel because of similarity of human experience.

THE WORKSHOP

A 3-Day workshop on the art of accurate storytelling is championed by Chris Ihidero, a leading filmmaker, TV producer/director who has mastered the craft of storytelling, including the full cycle of content production.

The Third Masterclass in the series will hold between 16th – 18th April 2018 at the 4th Floor Tapa House, 44 Abosede Kuboye Crescent, off Imam Dauda Street, Surulere, Lagos.

The workshop is delivered to empower and share knowledge to a class of thirty-five (35) participants, following a rigorous selection process as identified in this document. Our idea is to prepare participants for opportunities that extend their enhanced skills by servicing the industry with better storytelling.

THE SELECTION PROCESS

The Chris Ihidero’s Story Story Masterclass workshop will seek submission of creative works from, writers, producers and directors of audio-visual content in the form of short screenplays, produced films, written scripts etc. as attempted by applicants.

The workshop is open only to those who have personally made an attempt to tell stories, however successful or otherwise those attempts may have turned out to be.

All completed entries must be returned for further screening and selection of the final 35 workshop participants by Friday 6th April 2018.

WORKSHOP FACULTY

Chris Ihidero’s Story Story Masterclass workshop is facilitated by Chris Ihidero and supported by a faculty of creative professionals who will be narrating realities in storytelling. Established and respected in the industry, these experts include:

WHO IS CHRIS IHIDERO?

Chris Ihidero has been telling stories professionally for 21 years.

He started out as a theatre actor and director, and he has worked as a theatre artist, broadcaster, newspaper columnist, magazine editor and university lecturer. He taught literature at the Lagos State University for 3 years. He was the pioneer Editor of the then leading men’s lifestyle magazine, MADE.
He has been a newspaper columnist for 12 years.

In 2007, he joined Amaka Igwe Studios, which was a leading audio-visual production company in Nigeria, as a trainee director. From there, he rose to become the Chief Operating Officer in 2010. He has also worked as Director of Studies at the Centre for Excellence in Film and Media Studies in Lagos, which was the research and training arm of Amaka Igwe Studios.

In September 2014, he launched PinPoint Media and in December 2014, True Nollywood Stories (TNS), as a platform for news, views, reviews, opinion and general information around Nigeria’s film industry. In 2015, he was a producer on the ground-breaking HIV and behavioural change focused drama series Shuga Series 4, and he resumed this role on Shuga Series 6 in 2017.

Ihidero has directed over 100 hours of TV drama, including Fuji House of Commotion, Tempest and Now we are Marrie. He has made two short films, including Big Daddy (2012), a film about rape, which premiered at the Silverbird Cinemas in Lagos in December 2011. At over 500,000 views, it has become the most watched short film in Nigeria.The film won the “Special Jury Award” and “Best Editing Award” at the 2012 In-Short International Film Festival which took place in Lagos in October, 2012.

In 2015, Ihidero helped direct It Happened to Me, a short film written by Amaka Igwe. It was premiered at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in November 2013, and in Nigeria in April 2015. The film was commissioned as part of the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) aimed at using culturally appropriate strategies to strengthen youth involvement with HIV/AIDS prevention activities in Nigeria.

A member of Raindance Academy, the UK’s biggest independent filmmaking body, Chris Ihidero has participated in story Masterclasses facilitated by Hollywood’s top script/story consultant and author of the classic Anatomy of Story, John Truby. Chris Ihidero is passionate about positively impacting the Nigerian creative industry with appropriate skills and development capacities.

PARTNERS & MEDIA SUPPORT

Partners supporting the maiden edition of Chris Ihidero’s Story, Story continue to grow: